WRITTEN ON A FLY-LEAF OF "SHAKE SPEARE'S SONNETS."

[ZaunköniG]

WRITTEN ON A FLY-LEAF OF
"SHAKE SPEARE'S SONNETS."

WHEN will true love be love without alloy:
Shine greatly free from sinful circumstance!
When will the canker of unheavenly chance
Eat not the bud of that most heavenly joy!
When will true love meet love not as a coy
Retreating light that leads a deathful dance,
But as a firm fixed fire that doth enhance
The beauty of all beauty! Will the employ
Of poets ever be too well to show
That mightiest love with sharpest pain doth writhe;
That underneath the fair, caressing glove
Hides evermore the iron hand; and though
Love's flower alone is good, if we would prove
Its perfect bloom, our breath slays like a scythe!